HE'S the most wanted man in Glossop - despite dying more than 100 years ago.

Cyrus Garside, who once owned a timber merchants in Glossop, is being sought by the town's heritage centre.

The search started when a woman from Bath called in at the Henry Street centre to enquire about tracing her family history.

Val Gibson's grandmother was the granddaughter of Cyrus - and centre volunteer Mike Brown set to work trying to find out more.

Mike's great-grandfather John Harding had once worked as a bookkeeper for the infamous owner of what was then Surrey Street Saw Mills, which sold sawing, planing and moulding mills.

Mike was surprised when a few weeks later, a lady called Vicky Copson called in out of the blue and said she too was enquiring about Mr Garside.

"Her grandmother was Alice Garside, the daughter of Benjamin, the youngest son of Cyrus," said centre volunteer Lynda Meehan.

"Mike was chatting to me about the research he'd done and I said I'd done lots of research on him because my own cousin was a relation of the Garsides.

"It seems they were quite an affluent family. Cyrus was definitely a big man of his time. You can tell from the fact he had five coaches for his funeral. If you judge it by today's standards it would be impressive to have five funeral cars following the hearse."

Cyrus, who died in 1890, was married to Sarah Sidebottom. He worked for Lord Howard and is believed to have had nine children and 31 grandchildren. His second son, Alfred, was a former mayor of Glossop.

"He would have lived on Surrey Street. House number 56 is called Howardan House. There is a bit of space next to it, that would have been where the saw mills were."

Lynda and Mike have used censuses, parish records, old phone directories, newspaper cuttings, birth, marriage and death registers and the internet in their search for information, but have still to locate a photograph of the man himself.

"We would really like to get a picture of Cyrus Garside. Vicky has given us some pictures of the family which she had but It would be really nice to see what Cyrus looks like," said Lynda.

The heritage centre, at the top of Norfolk Square, is open every day. It aims to show the way the town, its setting and its people have developed in the known 10,000 years of its history. It has had visitors from as far afield as New Zealand, the Phillipines and America.

If anybody has any information or photographs of Cyrus Garside call in or contact Lynda or Mike on 869176.